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On the Road Part 2

Piper wasn’t interested in helping me with the bags. I’d packed us light on the off chance that Piper wasn’t as cooperative as she could be. Imagine that? We each had one small rolling suitcase. Piper could have easily rolled hers through the airport, but she preferred to watch me struggle. I didn’t have a hand free to hold hers, so I had to resort to annoying nagging as my only parenting tactic. “Piper, come back” “Piper, stay close.” “I’m right here, Piper. Keep up.” “Stay by my side, Piper.” I was hoarse by the time we left the terminal. I wish I’d had one of those kid leashes.

No judging here. It was way past both of our bedtimes. We hadn’t had dinner. We weren’t perhaps in the best condition to rent a car and drive out into the Ocala National Forest by ourselves at midnight. We were also suffering from the trauma of airplane bathroom automatic flushers. We could have used a dose of Captain Jack calm.

While I was fumbling with maps in the dark and trying to locate the lights in the rental car, Piper broke out her “guys” in the backseat.

Then she dropped them on the floor one by one and asked me to retrieve them. “Can’t, Piper,” I said, “mommy’s driving. My hands have to stay on the wheel.”

“I saw your hand on the map. That wasn’t on the wheel.”

“True. I did glance at the map, but I can’t reach your toys.”

“But I need my pony. I can’t play this game without Pinky Pie.”

“Pinky Pie will have to wait until we get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”

“How far is that?”

I checked the odometer. “87 more miles.”

“Oops. I dropped Pinky Cat. I can’t play this game without Pinky Cat.”

We repeated this conversation about every two miles until, of course, she fell asleep just as we pulled into the Grandma and Grandpa’s driveway. And guess what was waiting on her bed? The holy grail of “guys.”